Archive for November 4th, 2012

DAVAO CITY — The monthly revenue collection of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) Davao has continued to impress Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino Biazon after it posted P42-5 million revenue surplus for the month of October.

BOC-Davao District Collector Martiniano Bangcoy said that Biazon described the Davao port to be the saving grace of customs bureau with most of the 17 ports in the country missing their monthly target revenue collection with two more months left for 2012.

Biazon was recently here to lead the recognition for the second time Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. as the Top 1 Importer in Davao City that contributed P1.2 billion in duties and taxes to the over-all collection of BOC-Davao.

The recognition was given even as the year has yet to end. The first awarding happened on February 2012 in Metro Manila, citing Phoenix’s big contribution to BOC’s 2011 coffers.

Bangcoy said more than 20 percent of the total collection of the Davao port come from Phoenix importation of petroleum products.

Phoenix, a leading independent oil company with an expanding network of operations nationwide, maintains a depot in Lanang here.

In its October 2012 collection, BOC-Davao collected P501,383,611 as against its quota of only P458,850,000 with a surplus of P42,533,611 or nine percent.

Bangcoy said their annual target could already be met after its November 2012 collection and its December collection will already be the annual surplus. (ASA)

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DAVAO CITY – As Supt. Dionisio Abude promised after receiving the P100,000 cash prize when he was chosen the Cobra Pinoy Hero Awardee last August 29, 2012, a shelter now stands tall at the back of the Talomo police station.

Abude said he maximized the amount to make decent beds, lockers, pails, laundry and personal materials and utencils for the more 30 in-house youths who were formerly involved in crimes but now turning into productive citizens.

His personal advocacy to slowly transform them was the very basis that he was given that very coveted award, disputing the negative stereotyping of all policemen.

He said that aside from teaching them good values while under the police guardianship, they were also sent to school for free, taking up vocational and technical courses at the Emar Human and Environment College, formerly Emar Learning Center, accredited at the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

Abude said that he must be resourceful enough to feed them with the help of non-government organizations and civil-society groups like the Soroptomist International.

He said that they are also eyeing another partner group which could help them the medical assistance once the children get sick.

Aside from Abude, other two awardees were Mark “Rubberman” Cerezo of Marikina City and Leonilo Beltran of Baler, Aurora.

Organizers behind the Cobra Pinoy Hero Awards sifted through some 2,000 entries, narrowed it down to 9, and finally selected the top 3.

Cerezo learned to make sculptures out of trash and discarded rubber from shoemakers and it was the 2007 Christmas Festival of Marikina that served as the turning point of his career. Cerezo was chosen to conceptualize the theme and design robots for the Festival. That big break led him to a host of media features.

Beltran, a former OFW electrician from Saipan founded the Skills Caravan, where volunteers teach vocational skills to out-of-school youth and jobless adults. He started teaching electrical skills to inmates as a volunteer of the Alternative Learning System of the Department of Education. That served as his springboard for the Skills Caravan. The Skills Caravan teaches plumbing and electrical skills, and soon, how to be a cook, barber, and computer technician. (ASA)

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DAVAO CITY – If we would be talking about the most peaceful cemetery during the observance of “Undas”, then it would be the Panacan Public Cemetery.

Except for the deployed police and military personnel and volunteers, no one was seen spending the nights starting from October 31 to November 2 to hold a vigil for his/her departed loved ones.

Supt. Royina Garma, chief of the Sasa police station of the Davao City Police Office here, said that the Panacan cemetery was still half-flooded and that electric connection inside the cemetery premises was no longer functional.

“This must be the very reason that we found no one holding a vigil there. Our policemen there were even bored to secure the area when they have nothing to watch over about,” she said.

She said only few people were also seen visiting the place during day time, unlike in other cemeteries and memorial parks.

The Panacan cemetery was closed to further burials by the city government since 2008 for rehabilitation purposes.

It was among the nine public cemeteries to be part of the rehabilitation program to be supervised by the City Economic Enterprises’ cemetery operations.

Aside from Panacan, other public cemeteries are Wireless, Tugbok, Mintal, Calinan, Maa, Toril, Tibungco and Bunawan.

Currently in the works is a rehabilitation program for the Wireless Public Cemetery atop Madapo Hills where P23 million has been estimated as the total budget for its full rehabilitation which will include the construction of 928 niches, 13,248-unit ossuary, common grave areas, administrative buildings, candle lighting stations, road network, landscaping and beautification.

If completed the Wireless Cemetery would resemble a memorial park and would soon reopen for more burials. The cemetery was closed to further burials by the city government in 2008.

Phase 1 of the rehabilitation has already been completed with the construction of a steel gate and fence, 254 units of niches and a 1,368-unit ossuary. About 1,600 graves were temporarily cleared and placed in temporary bone deposition area.

Next to Wireless, Panacan and Toril cemeteries will be rehabilitated. (ASA)

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DAVAO CITY – Bishop Guillermo Afable of the Diocese of Digos has commended military officials for initiating the investigation of the Board of Inquiry that later found 13 soldiers to be guilty in the death of the wife and two sons of a B’laan tribal leader in Kiblawan town in Davao del Sur.

“I commend the Army’s 10th ID (Infantry Division) for the the reported outcome of the investigation of Bong Mal investigation,” Afable was quoted as saying in a text message.

He said that “truth and restorative justice do prevail in our AFP. You make us proud. There is hope for matuwid na daan.”

This came as 13 members of the 27th Infantry Battalion are set to face a military court-martial for allegedly violating the Rules of Engagement.

“Investigation showed that there is a tactical lapse and gross negligence of duty,” Paniza said, adding the involved soldiers could be discharged from military service and face criminal charges and be jailed.

He said that this is to show that the military is not condoning any wrongdoing committed by the rank and file of the Philippine Army.

“We shall let the rule of law to prevail,” he said.

It can be recalled that soldiers swooped down into the reported house of Daguil Capion, a known bandit leader who was blamed to a number of killings in Barangay Kimlawis, Kiblawan over his opposition to the Tampakan copper and gold project, and engaged him in a firefight.

But they missed on Capion but hit his two-month-old pregnant wife, Juvy and two sons, Pop and John, who died to gunshot wounds on their heads and bodies.

The Capion family was backed by so-called human rights groups and anti-mining organizations based in Marbel, South Cotabato and Davao City, which instigated them to filed murder charges against the soldiers involved in the operation.

The mine would be the country’s biggest source of foreign investment if it begins operations in 2016 as scheduled, although influential local church figures, tribal groups and environmental activists fiercely oppose it. (ASA)

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DAVAO CITY – The military blamed the death of a fish vendor in a remote Paquibato district here to suspected members of the New People’s Army.

Lt. Col. Lyndon Paniza, spokesperson of the 10th Infantry Division, said that 29-year-old Rannel Parilla was executed by four men believed to be members of the sparrow unit of the communist group reportedly led by Commander Ryan Pitao.

Paniza said that Parilla was only bending fish on Wednesday afternoon outside their house in Barangay malabog, Paquibato along with his wife Edgiely when the suspects without any word shot him several times that caused his instant death.

“The Organized Crime Group-NPA once again showed their true nature as cold-blooded criminals by means of sowing fear by killing innocent civilians, more so a resident who just wants to earn a living to fend his family,” he said in a statement.

He said that joint elements of the Philippine National Police and Philippine Army are now tracking down the four suspects to face the consequences of their actions.

Paniza said that “they should be penalized on this violation as cited in the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) Part 4, article 4, Paragraph 4 which clearly stated that ‘civilian population shall be treated and protected as such and shall be distinguished from combatants, together with their property, shall not be the object of attack’, Human rights watchdogs seems to have been blinded whenever these atrocities happen perpetrated by the criminal group New People’s Army. (ASA)